Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FIRST SINGING, by KATHARINE TYNAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FIRST SINGING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When I shall come one evening to god's house on the hill
Last Line: And the thrush and the blackbird their song in the cold.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hinkson, Katharine Tynan
Subject(s): Birds; God; Happiness; Singing & Singers; Spring; Joy; Delight


WHEN I shall come one evening to God's house on the hill,
I ask no singing angels by lintel or window-sill,
Nor any harp or cithern, but only the wild song
The thrush and the blackbird sang when I was young.

Give me no fadeless Summer and no unwithering wreath,
But the year in its seasons and new life after death,
And in the heart of Winter the joys yet to be,
And the blackbird singing on a rime-pale tree.

O Paradise skies, be cloudy sometimes lest I should pine
For the soft mists and raining in that wild land of mine,
And the blackbird singing bravely amid the dripping boughs,
And the thrush with his talking of a love-lit house.

I should miss, 'mid the tuning of the high heavenly choir,
The song of the blackbird telling my heart's desire,
Amid the joy and glory and the old world made new,
The thirst for the blackbird would break my heart in two.

I think where I'll be going the Lord will not forget
The joy He gave His people; sure He'll remember yet!
He'll keep a cloud, a raining upon the blue and gold,
And the thrush and the blackbird their song in the cold.





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